Terminator Salvation (UK - BD)

This review contains spoilers. If you have not seen the film you might want to skip ahead to the technical sections.

Feature

In the post-apocalyptic world of 2018 John Connor (Christian Bale) fights alongside the remnants of humanity as they wage war against the implacable mechanical armies of Skynet, the sentient computer system that engineered the nuclear holocaust known as Judgement Day. Shortly after infiltrating a Skynet R&D centre, Connor and his squad discover human prisoners and plans for a new Terminator: the T-800. John recognises the T-800 as the model from his childhood, but his superiors refuse to listen to his concerns. When the base is annihilated by a nuclear explosion John barely manages to escape with his life, and fails to notice a mysterious figure emerging from the wreckage. The mystery man turns out to be Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a death row inmate who signed his body over to science shortly before his execution by lethal injection. Alone and with no memory of events since his ‘execution’, Marcus wonders the desolate landscape until he arrives in Los Angeles, where he is almost killed in an encounter with a T-600. Marcus is saved by a young survivor called Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), and together they attempt to locate John Connor while evading all manner of mechanised nightmares.

If you came here looking for an objective review of Terminator Salvation you’re going to be disappointed. I really disliked the film when I caught it at the cinema and this latest viewing has done nothing to alter my perception. My biggest problem with the film is its own sense of logic—pretty much everything that happens relies on co-incidence, with character A running into character B not through any conscious act, but rather through a series of utterly random events. For example, Marcus meets Kyle completely by chance, and the fact that he just happens to run into the one soldier (Blair) who can lead him to John Connor is also extremely convenient. As for the time travel, well that’s always a complex subject, and in order for it to work films must have their own set of rules that are consistently applied across any sequels. However, for reasons that are never really explained the Skynet of Terminator Salvation has knowledge of the events of the past three films and knows that Kyle Reese is John Connor’s father. That’s why it has set an elaborate trap using Marcus and Reese to lure Connor to his death. However, if Skynet knows Reese is Connor’s father why doesn’t it just kill him right then and there and erase all trace of Connor?

Now there is a counter argument that Skynet knows that Reese going back in time led to Cyberdyne Systems discovering the damaged T-800 parts, thus leading to Skynet’s creation. This makes sense to a point, as the whole paradox thing is pretty much unavoidable with time travel stories, but if this is the case why is it explicitly stated that Kyle Reese is number one of Skynet’s ‘to kill’ list (and indeed multiple attempts are made on his life)? Even if the writers did think everything through—which I’m not for a moment convinced that they did—this alone constitutes a massive plot hole and incredibly sloppy writing. Unfortunately this is indicative of most of Terminator Salvation’s plot, which stretches the bounds of believability even for a film involving killer robots and time travel. The film’s closing scenes are so ridiculous that I completely lost any goodwill I might have had left (which wasn’t much to begin with). Seriously, we’re expected to believe that not only can John Connor survive being stabbed thought the heart, but that he lives long enough for his veterinarian wife to attempt a heart transplant in a field hospital in the middle of a nuclear wasteland, and that Marcus just happens to be a compatible donor? The second word is ‘off’…

However, there are some positives. First and foremost, the Terminator effects in this film are the most convincing of any in the franchise. The hulking T-600s are very imposing, there are nods to the T-1s from Rise of the Machines, the HKs look great, and even the Harvester is very impressive (even if it does look like it escaped from a certain Michael Bay movie playing on an adjacent screen). There’s even a fan-friendly nod to the Governator himself courtesy of some not entirely convincing CGI work from ILM. The acting is decent enough, although Bale spends most of the time either whispering in a gruff voice or bellowing in a manner similar to his infamous outburst at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, and Worthington goes back and forth between an Aussie trying to sound American and, well, and Aussie. Star Trek star Anton Yelchin is an interesting choice for the young Kyle Reese, and he does a decent enough job in the role, and Moon Bloodgood is always visually impressive if nothing else. Some of the action set-pieces are also quite impressive, even if there’s nothing on a par with the stunts seen in either Terminator 2 or Rise of the Machines.

I had hoped to end this section on a more positive not, but I’m afraid that writing about the action scenes has started me off again. How is it that the T-800 in the original film was damaged by crashing a car into a wall, but this T-800 can take multiple hits from a grenade launcher without so much as a scratch? For that matter, how is it able to survive being covered in molten steel and rapidly cooled without so much as a fracture? Why does Marcus go from beating up a few thugs to standing toe-to-toe with a T-800 and indeed throwing it across the room with relative ease? Talking of throwing people across the room, why do the damn Terminators insist on doing just that to John Connor every time they get their hands on him, rather than just snapping his neck? Why does Kyle tell Marcus that it’s safer to move about in the daytime in direct contradiction to his comments in the first film about staying down by day and moving around at night? Why... Oh, forget it—I’ll be here all day at this rate.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the disc includes both the theatrical and director’s cuts of the main feature by way of seamless branching. To be honest the only obvious differences were some more violence in the fight between Marcus and the thugs and a brief shot of the side of Moon Bloodgood’s boobs, which I suppose is better than no shot at all. There are probably a few other extensions here and there to account for the extra three minutes, but I couldn’t tell you what they are.

Video

Terminator Salvation’s 2.40:1 widescreen transfer (1080/24p AVC) is exactly what you’d expect from a mega-budgeted movie that’s less than six months old. It’s incredibly clean, without a hint of film or even digital artefacts (save for perhaps some very light posterisation that could easily be inherent to the source) and impressively detailed throughout. The filmmakers have employed plenty of filters to give each setting a distinct look of its own, and the Blu-ray does an admirable job of reproducing things. Most of the film takes place in the harsh light of the scorched earth, during which time the palette shifts towards more muted tones and has a bleached-out look. At other times we find ourselves in dimly lit underground bases, submarines, or Skynet factories, during which the film takes on a colder, more industrial appearance, and once the action moves to Skynet’s command tower we get a cleaner, almost antiseptic look. Natural grain is present throughout, but it is light and never becomes distracting, although it is heavier in the darker scenes. Talking of the darker scenes, black levels are consistent throughout (which is handy considering that much of the film takes place in dark environments) and shadow detail remains good. Admittedly the blacks aren’t always completely inky, but this would seem to be a stylistic choice rather than a transfer deficiency. Another selling point is the virtually seamless integration of effects with live-action elements. Quite often Blu-ray will show up any dodgy CGI work, but apart from the aforementioned T-800 everything looks like it’s part of the real world. From what I can remember this would appear to be a very faithful representation of the theatrical experience, and although I’m hesitant to start labelling transfers 'reference quality' I will say that it is an extremely impressive visual experience from start to finish.

Audio

The disc includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack and it’s another corker. Right from the opening moments you know you’re in for a real treat, as the maelstrom of sound that accompanies the attack on the R&D lab assaults you from all angles. You’re surrounded by helicopters, A-10s, gunfire, explosions and Terminators, creating a three-hundred-and-sixty degree soundfield of death. This aural tour de force is just the beginning though, as there are numerous highlights through the film such as Marcus’ encounter with the T-600, the Harvester attack, the Moto-Terminator chase, the HK assault, and the infiltration of the Skynet complex. Each of these scenes is backed up by some incredibly ferocious bass, of the kind that really rattles your ribcage. The track also delivers in the quieter moments, be it the ambient sounds of the Terminator factory with its dripping pipes, hissing steam, and whirring machinery, or the whistling of the wind across the endless wasteland, and the sound of rainfall during a desert storm. Impressively, dialogue is always perfectly balanced during even the most thunderous of scenes, something that hasn’t always been the case with recent high-profile releases. I was a little disappointed by the rather generic score, which features only the occasional snippet of the series’ iconic theme, but it was nice to hear source music from Guns ‘n’ Roses, even if it didn’t make a lot of sense in the context of the events on screen. Even so, this is clearly a very, very good sound mix, and the disc’s stand-out element.

Extras

Whatever my thoughts about the movie, there is no denying that the Blu-ray features some fairly innovative bonus content. I expected the 'Maximum Movie Mode' from Warner's release to be ripped from Sony's release of the film like so much dead tissue from a T-800 endoskeleton (hey, it happened with Paramount's release of Watchmen), so I was pleasantly surprised when its inclusion was confirmed. It's basically an advanced video commentary in which director McG occasionally walks on-screen to talk about specific scenes, but there are also other elements such as a timeline, picture-in-picture featurettes, focus points, still galleries and storyboards. It’s actually a neat feature, and all the different elements prevent the track from becoming stale in the way that some commentaries (standard or PiP) can. Unfortunately I really didn’t take to McG as a presenter, partially because he insists on referring to himself as ‘McG’ and partially because I don’t like his persona. There’s a reason Bill Murray (allegedly) head butted him.

Next up is 'Reforging the Future' (19:01 HD), a featurette that focuses on the creators' attempts to bring the post-apocalyptic world glimpsed at in the first three films to life. We're shown set construction, costume design, visual effects, stunts, and more. It is followed by 'The Moto-Terminator' (08:33 HD), which details the process of designing and creating the all-new Terminator bikes that attack Marcus and Kyle as they escape from the Harvester. We're shown the fabrication and shooting processes, with the latter consisting mostly of stuntmen riding Ducatis as reference for the digital doubles.

Up next we have eleven 'Focus Points' (29:47 HD) as featured in the 'Maximum Movie Mode', which can be viewed individually or by means of a 'play all' function. They basically just provide a closer look at how certain effects were created, such as the Imocap system used to match up the digital doubles, the particle simulations used for the molten metal in the Terminator factory, or the design and construction of the gas stations set. There are also trailers for Blu-ray Disc is High Definition! and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, along with the new BD-Live technologies CineChat and MovieIQ, which let you chat to your friends and look up facts about the cast and crew. The packaging also mentions more BD-Live content in the form of TechCom Videos, but at the time of writing these were not available.

Overall

Terminator Salvation is proof that throwing millions of dollars at the screen is simply no substitute for a great story and assured direction. Whoever thought that it was a good idea to hand such a beloved franchise over to the director of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle needs to take a long, hard look at themselves. It’s a sad day when the best thing you can say about a film is that a rant by its star spawned an amusing Internet meme. I’ll admit that it’s not the worst of the summer blockbusters (that dubious honour belongs to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), but it’s certainly near the bottom of the pile in a year where Star Trek was the only big-budget franchise to escape with its credibility intact.

Clearly I wasn’t too keen on the film, so I don’t expect any hardcore Terminator Salvation fans to base their purchasing decision on the feature section of my review. However, I was very taken with the disc’s technical elements, particularly the audio, which manages to outshine even the impressive visual transfer. Although relatively thin on the ground, the extras offer more than the average title by way of the excellent ‘Maximum Movie Mode’, which succeeds in blending traditional commentary with video sequences, branching features, stills and more. My one criticism is that I would have liked more of a focus on Stan Winston’s contribution to the film in the form of a dedicated featurette, but sadly that was not to be. Even so, this is a technically brilliant presentation of a mediocre (at best) feature. Buy it by all means, but please do so knowing that it’s not a patch on the James Cameron films.

* Note: The above images are taken from the Blu-ray release and resized for the page. Full-resolution captures are available by clicking individual images, but due to .jpg compression they are not necessarily representative of the quality of the transfer.

19th November 2009 13:08#3

Good review, but you say to avoid spoilers proceed directly to the technical section which when you do has a great picture of Sam Worthington showing him to be a terminator. Hum. Perhaps a change of picture to avoid spoiler in light of the opening line would be a good idea!

19th November 2009 14:35#6

mckee74 wrote: Good review, but you say to avoid spoilers proceed directly to the technical section which when you do has a great picture of Sam Worthington showing him to be a terminator. Hum. Perhaps a change of picture to avoid spoiler in light of the opening line would be a good idea!

Considering how the trailers revealed that and much more, I wouldn't even consider that a spoiler anymore.

The only thing that could have saved this movie is the Bale rant placed in the credits, Smokey and the Bandit style. That would have been class!

19th November 2009 15:16#7

Nice review Chris. Talking of polt holes in the movie, what I wondered after seeing this in the cinema was, given the time line that this film occurs in (prior to the first three films)how is it that Marcus appears to be the most advanced Terminator yet? All three of the main terminators in the other films display obvious robot traits such as vacant expressions, facial tics etc etc and yet Marcus does none of that. Also, the toher three terminators all had "terminator vision" and yet if Marcus doesn't know he's a terminator then he must not have. Surely, as he is so convincing as a "human" he must be more advanced that the other 3 and yet how can that be if this is before the other films?

19th November 2009 17:41#10

legalbeagle wrote: how is it that Marcus appears to be the most advanced Terminator yet? All three of the main terminators in the other films display obvious robot traits such as vacant expressions, facial tics etc etc and yet Marcus does none of that. Also, the toher three terminators all had "terminator vision" and yet if Marcus doesn't know he's a terminator then he must not have. Surely, as he is so convincing as a "human" he must be more advanced that the other 3 and yet how can that be if this is before the other films?

Reading this post with my own name being Marcus was about as distracting as it was listening to it come up in movie at the cinema.

20th November 2009 3:54#11

I quite liked Worthington, despite his accent, and I loved Anton Yelchin, but other than a nice look it was a pretty big wash. The behind the scenes c**p clearly had an effect on the outcome. I was a big fan of the original leaked ending myself.

The fact that people still call T3 the worst of the series is mind boggling to me. At the very least that movie had the best John Conner, a fantastic car chase, and a ballsy ending.

20th November 2009 8:22#13

old painlessMemberJoin Date: February 2008Location: United KingdomPosts: 81

Well i love the terminator trilogy but i treat this like the latest indiana jones and thats try and forget about it and just pretend it was never made and that it was all a bad dream.If they couldnt think of anything that was going to be good they should of just stuck to the tried and tested formula.Poor me ive watched it 3 times thinking its terminator its going to grow on me surely but alas you can't turn copper into gold and i can't stand Sam Worthington where did this guy sprout from.It's funny you mention spoilers ,hey this film was spoilt before you see it.

21st November 2009 23:47#18

legalbeagle wrote: I didn't think Sam Worthington was too bad... the film had many more problems with it than just him... Check out Rogue. He has a small role in that but it's a good one! I would agree with that regarding Rogue. He shows up and appears to be playing an Aussie version of a redneck arsehole, but when the sh*t hits the fan, his performance changes and I really liked what he did. He nows runs the risk of being everywhere,(T4, Avatar, Clash Of The Titans), and becoming boring.

22nd November 2009 23:27#19

rebel-scum wrote: legalbeagle wrote: I didn't think Sam Worthington was too bad... the film had many more problems with it than just him... Check out Rogue. He has a small role in that but it's a good one! I would agree with that regarding Rogue. He shows up and appears to be playing an Aussie version of a redneck arsehole, but when the sh*t hits the fan, his performance changes and I really liked what he did. He nows runs the risk of being everywhere,(T4, Avatar, Clash Of The Titans), and becoming boring. So true - I wonder what will happen to his burgoning career if Avatar tanks?

30th November 2009 11:42#20

I'm a bit ashamed to say, I didn't actually hate this. I loathed T3 and was expecting to be watching this through fingers over tired eyes and with a resigned, shaking head. Yes there are too many nods to the first 2 films but for me they didn't clang like they did in T3. I recognized the moto-terminator jump from the bridge (for example) for what it was but didn't object to it being there. There was no obvious build up to it happening and it was releatively, 'thrown away' and not dwelt on.

The story is complete tonk and there are far too many questions if you really want to pick at it but it was okay. I didn't want to burn the disc afetrwards so that's something.

I was struck by how similar in nature the film was to Bale's 'Reign of Fire' though. Bale occupying the main characters in both and Worthington is 'Van Zaaaahn!' only not as over the top. There's the resistance in both films. Both characters make their way to a final confrontation with the enemy (Skynet/the Dragon) One of them sacrifices themselves at the end. Bale's character was around in both films before armageddon kicked off. I'm sure there are more similarities.

3rd December 2009 1:44#21

Well, like most people say, if you’re a fan of Cameron’s Terminator, just assume that Judgment Day is the conclusion of the story. But, if u want to try to enjoy the following features, just assume that by blowing up Skynet in T2, JC & his Mother have changed the future that has been told before. Just like what Arnie said in T3 that their action has altered the order of the event. From that point, it is okay to assume that the future is different than the predicted one in T1 (hey, even JC’s face in T3-T4 is different from the ‘forecasted’ one in T2, he..he..). That’s my way of enjoying T3 & the following movies.

19th March 2010 22:46#22

I can now watch this after firmware was installed last December 2010. I gave up with the Bluray and changed it over for a disc that would play.

I’m still mighty pissed off with the format its still a long way off from being all-round perfect which is down to the lousy studios who bulls**ted most of you and most of you even believed T2 Skynet is a perfect image! Its ghastly looking!

It’s got green smearing in bright scenes that have a blue background and most of the image has blue tint. You’d have to be all colour blind not to notice it and it is a lousy transfer that doesn’t even remotely mirror the cinema look.

The sound is the only part that is good it’s the same pace rate of speed as the NTSC laserdisc versions I have and miles off the PAL speed up [yack] version. The image is the same for all VHS and laserdisc and DVD editions, why would I bother to give you the heads up otherwise!

As for the dtsHDMA [coughing] its not all that bad as it goes. I would prefer DolbyTrue since I’m a Dolby fan!

The lows on the LCRS seem bandwidth limited after checking an average loud scene out. (Chapter 6, time start 00:37:31 stop 00:38:46) not much goes below 25Hz or least of all below 20Hz. The LFE.1 track has been mixed with some lower, lows that go below 20Hz. Mostly its within 30Hz 50Hz some of the higher peak moments which is plenty and suitable for most average subs.

Extras I almost got bored stiff with after 30min of watching something that didn’t interest me. Wares the talk on the sound mix of the film??? I might have just well watched Christian Bale having his melt down on youtube for comic laughs.

Quick Reply

Message

Enter the message here then press submit. The username, password and message are required. Please make the message constructive, you are fully responsible for the legality of anything you contribute. Terms & conditions apply.